**Official** New Zealand in England

[Richard]

Yup. And the the thing about the proposed changes is that they do absolutely nothing to improve matters from the spinelessly inept garbage that we've seen from most of today's XI. The only logical conclusion is that they will make matters significantly worse. But hey, what's that in the face of a quick buck?
Well done NZ, but they should never have had a sniff of the game from 45 for 5, or even from their final total. One of the worst batting displays ever, and we've seen a few from this bunch of lazy tossers.

NZ's batting was worse than England's IMO. At least NZ pitched the ball up and earned some of the wickets. England bowled far too short and were damn fortunate NZ didn't get 250.

 

[steds]

The question, stedsios, is this: which is worse out of Prior and Wright?

Having to make such a choice is akin to deciding whether to be hanged or beheaded.

 

[Days of Grace]

Hopefully this will be the day when Southee came of age.

Make this day down.

 

[Richard]

Having to make such a choice is akin to deciding whether to be hanged or beheaded.

Or.

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

Collingwood doesn't seem to be sure about anything.

 

[wpdavid]

NZ's batting was worse than England's IMO. At least NZ pitched the ball up and earned some of the wickets. England bowled far too short and were damn fortunate NZ didn't get 250.

Doesn't make our batting remotely good enough though.

As for our bowling, I've only seen the innings figures, but Anderson much have been truly abysmal, even allowing for that over at McCullum. Beyond that, today showed yet again how much we miss Flintoff: 3 proper bowlers always leaves you in danger of the sort of comeback we saw from Elliott & Mills today.

 

[steds]

Steds - pathalogical hatred of Sussex players?

Actually, thinking about it... Yardy, Kirtley, Martin-Jenkins...


I quite like Murray Goodwin, though.

 

[Richard]

And Mills gets MOTM. Bloody hell, I think I'd have tried giving a joint award between Elliott and Mills.

 

[Nate]

Doesn't make our batting remotely good enough though.

As for our bowling, I've only seen the innings figures, but Anderson much have been truly abysmal, even allowing for that over at McCullum. Beyond that, today showed yet again how much we miss Flintoff: 3 proper bowlers always leaves you in danger of the sort of comeback we saw from Elliott & Mills today.

The selection of Wright and Collingwood's handling of the bowlers was more the problem. Everyone could have told you Anderson would get tonked at the end and Swann only got five overs.

 

[Richard]

Doesn't make our batting remotely good enough though.

As for our bowling, I've only seen the innings figures, but Anderson much have been truly abysmal, even allowing for that over at McCullum. Beyond that, today showed yet again how much we miss Flintoff: 3 proper bowlers always leaves you in danger of the sort of comeback we saw from Elliott & Mills today.

Oh, our batting was poor, certainly. But NZ's was worse. Our bowling was made to look far better than it was. Broad and Tremlett were OK, but mostly short. I said it earlier, but I'd back Smith, de Villiers, Kallis et al to have smashed the sort of stuff they were serving-up. Anderson was woeful of course, so annoying that he got gifted that wicket which makes his figures look good to those who insist that wicket-taking is all that matters. Mascarenhas' presence, I maintain, would've helped but Wright is, well, woeful.

 

[Richard]

The selection of Wright and Collingwood's handling of the bowlers was more the problem. Everyone could have told you Anderson would get tonked at the end and Swann only got five overs.

Four TBH. Yeah, I thought he was brought on too late. This management seem to have too much faith in Wright's bowling, as they had too much in Bopara's for ages. They're both woeful, and Wright can't bat either. Just open with Broad FFS, can't do all that much worse and means another bowler can play.

 

[wpdavid]

Four TBH. Yeah, I thought he was brought on too late. This management seem to have too much faith in Wright's bowling, as they had too much in Bopara's for ages. They're both woeful, and Wright can't bat either. Just open with Broad FFS, can't do all that much worse and means another bowler can play.

I've seen worse suggestions.

 

[Nate]

Don't claim to know a lot about England domestic form, but

Cook
Bell
Strauss
Pietersen
Collingwood
Ambrose
Mascarenhas
Swann
Broad
Sidebottom
Tremlett/Anderson

or something of the like seems the go to me. Enough bowling options and batting down to 9.

 

[Richard]

Nooooooo, not Strauss. NOT STRAUSS!!!!!!!!!!! That ruins our ODI #3 AND possibly damages Strauss just when he's looking like becoming a good Test batsman again.

FFS, what does Usman Afzaal have to do?

 

[Nate]

Nooooooo, not Strauss. NOT STRAUSS!!!!!!!!!!! That ruins our ODI #3 AND possibly damages Strauss just when he's looking like becoming a good Test batsman again.

FFS, what does Usman Afzaal have to do?

Was unsure who else to put there itbt. Shah looks a bit out of his depth and Bopara a lot more so. Rampsss

 

[wpdavid]

Nooooooo, not Strauss. NOT STRAUSS!!!!!!!!!!! That ruins our ODI #3 AND possibly damages Strauss just when he's looking like becoming a good Test batsman again.

FFS, what does Usman Afzaal have to do?

Scoring some oneday runs for Surrey would help. Newman would be a better bet, but I don't really fancy him at this level.

100% agreed about Strauss though.
Also agree with those arguing against Shah. Looking at his scores the other day, the good ones have been mighty rare even over the last 12 months, and today's dismissal read like a Bell-esque rabbit in the headlights job.

 

[wpdavid]

Was unsure who else to put there itbt. Shah looks a bit out of his depth and Bopara a lot more so. Rampsss

Bopara was less culpable than most today. In the 3 innings so far in this series, only the first was a poor dismissal afaics: the runout last time provided no basis for any decision about his quality or lack of, and today he fell to a blinder of a catch after making more than Bell, KP, Wright, Shah & Ambrose combined.

 

[Richard]

Was unsure who else to put there itbt. Shah looks a bit out of his depth and Bopara a lot more so. Rampsss

Aye, Shah and Bopara have never yet convinced me and it's been long enough in Shah's case that I'm now fairly confident he never will. Both need to go after this series if there's still nothing for mine - Shah to not come back and Bopara to not come back for at least another year.

Ramprakash would be no use for mine though, obv - won't be around in 2011.

I say it again - USMAN AFZAAL!!!!!!!!!

Funny, though - all that lot just mentioned are of Asian background, even if Ramprakash is Asian-Guyanese. Think Bopara is the only UK-born one of them.

 

[Richard]

Scoring some oneday runs for Surrey would help. Newman would be a better bet, but I don't really fancy him at this level.

I don't get it. Afzaal has done next to nothing but score runs all career, including averaging 62 this year. While Newman's only looked good for 2 seasons having been woeful for the previous 5.

 

[Mard]

to tell you the truth i find these low scoring ODIS really fun to watch, The excitment is always in there in these sort of matches. Thats why i miss the ODIS from the 80's and 90's which were low scoring and fun to watch.